When soft tissue such as ligament or tendon becomes detached from bone, surgery is usually required to reattach or reconstruct the tissue. Techniques and devices that have been developed generally involve tying the soft tissue with suture to bone and/or to various fixation devices such as anchors or bone plates, for example.
Tying of the soft tissue with suture typically involves forming one or more knots in the suture. Once the knots have been tied, they cannot be adjusted to impart more tension or to readjust the position/location of the knots relative to the soft tissue.
It would be desirable to provide a knotless suture construct which can be retensioned after the repair has been conducted and that can be cycled a few times. Also needed are knotless tensionable suture constructs that allow tissue reattachment (i.e., attachment of tissue to a fixation device, another tissue, bone, etc.) without tying knots. Also needed are improved methods for tissue fixation/reattachment with a knotless tensionable suture construct that allows the suture to be retensioned if additional tension is required which cannot be accomplished when tying knots.